Petru Groza

Petru Groza
President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly
In office 12 June 1952 – 7 January 1958
Preceded by	Constantin Ion Parhon
Succeeded by	Ion Gheorghe Maurer
President of the Council of Ministers
In office 6 March 1945 – 2 June 1952
Monarch	Michael I (1945–1947)
President	Constantin Ion Parhon (1947–1952)
Deputy	Gheorghe Tătărescu (1945–1947) Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1948–1952)
Preceded by	Nicolae Rădescu
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Vice President of the Council of Ministers
In office 4 November 1944 – 28 February 1945
Monarch	Michael I
Prime Minister	Constantin Sănătescu Nicolae Rădescu
Preceded by	Mihai Antonescu
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Tătărescu
President of the Ploughmen's Front
In office 1933–1953
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (party merged with the Romanian Workers' Party)
Minister of State
In office 30 March 1926 – 4 June 1927
Prime Minister	Alexandru Averescu
Minister of Public Works
In office 30 March 1926 – 14 July 1926
Prime Minister	Alexandru Averescu
Preceded by	Traian Moșoiu
Succeeded by	Constantin Meissner
Personal details
Born	(1884-12-07)7 December 1884 Bácsi, Hunyad County, Transleithania, Austria-Hungary (now Băcia, Romania)
Died	7 January 1958(1958-01-07) (aged 73) Bucharest, Romanian People's Republic
Nationality	Romanian
Political party	Romanian National Party (1918–1920) People's Party (1920–1933) Ploughmen's Front (1933–1953) Independent (1953–1958)
Alma mater	University of Budapest Leipzig University
Profession	Lawyer
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Petru Groza (7 December 1884 – 7 January 1958) was a Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania, and later as the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly (nominal head of state of Romania) from 1952 until his death in 1958.

Groza emerged as a public figure at the end of World War I as a notable member of the Romanian National Party (PNR), preeminent layman of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and then member of the Directory Council of Transylvania. In 1925–26 he served as Minister of State in the cabinet of Marshal Alexandru Averescu. In 1933, Groza founded a left-wing Agrarian organization known as the Ploughmen's Front (Frontul Plugarilor). The left-wing ideas he supported earned him the nickname The Red Bourgeois.^[1]

Groza became Premier in 1945 when Nicolae Rădescu, a leading Romanian Army general who assumed power briefly following the conclusion of World War II, was forced to resign by the Soviet Union's deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Andrei Y. Vishinsky.^[2] During Groza's tenure, Romania's King, Michael I, was forced to abdicate as the nation officially became a "People's Republic". Although his authority and power as Premier was compromised by his reliance upon the Soviet Union for support, Groza presided over the onset of full-fledged Communist rule in Romania before eventually being succeeded by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej in 1952 and became the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly until his death in 1958.^[2]